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Cumbria firm powering to success

A NEW range of power quality monitoring equipment is now available from Bender UK to protect vital power distribution systems against sudden and unforeseen failure.

SAFETY: Bender’s Linetraxx power quality monitoring equipment

The Linetraxx PQM units are available alongside Bender’s advanced on-line earth fault location systems as part of a product range designed to meet the needs of its customers across sectors from healthcare, rail and marine engineering through to electric cars, data handling centres and solar power generation.

Bender specialises in the development of innovative solutions for safe handling of electrical power specifically, and its products are designed to predict and avoid unexpected interruption of power supply, and address risks ranging from reduced service life and increased energy consumption through to fire in cabling.

The new Bender Linetraxx power quality monitoring units ensure high availability and a power supply free from interference caused by frequency converters, switched-mode power supplies, uninterruptible power supply systems and electronic ballasts.

Problems caused can range from voltage fluctuation to distortion of power system frequencies – causing the power supply to become ‘dirty’.

Systems interactions can also cause interference in neighbouring equipment.

The most frequent problems are caused by “harmonic components” on the electrical supply which can cause an overload, which in turn triggers a safety device that shuts down the system resulting in reduced availability due to frequent downtime.

Bender’s power quality monitoring equipment enables early detection of potentially dangerous situations – allowing enough time to correct problems without the need to shut down equipment; for example by shedding less important loads before the protective device trips out.

Power quality monitoring is particularly effective when combined with Bender’s range of residual current monitoring units, which detect degradation in the level of insulation in an installation or component – again improving availability by signalling the problem at an early stage before safety shutdown.

Information gained from the early warning of developing faults allows shutdowns to be planned, enhancing asset uptime and making it ideal for applications where power failure cannot be tolerated, such as sensitive manufacturing or service networks.

Bender’s power quality monitor devices also act as energy meters while checking the system quality, determining the energy consumption per cost centre and reducing high overhead costs.

Bender components ensured the reliability and performance of generators across the Olympic Park at London 2012 and protect the complex systems on board Royal Navy surface ships and the Astute class submarines. Bender units are also safeguarding a new generation of electric racing cars and protect the integrity of signalling systems that control Britain’s railways.

Its safety role is even more acute in the medical sector where Bender UK has developed a market leading reputation through a UK partnership with healthcare and operating theatre equipment specialist Steris Surgical Products, maintaining power to vital equipment used for life support, diagnosis and treatment.

Bender UK is principally involved in the application, installation, servicing support and sales of the huge range of Bender equipment manufactured in Germany.

Based at the Low Mill Business Park in Ulverston, Bender UK currently employs 26 people but that is set to rise to more than 30 by the middle of 2013 as the company continues its expansion.

Managing director Steve Mason is proud of the worldwide reputation of its German parent company, but prouder still of the continuing growth of the UK operation, both in terms of orders and its own reputation for outstanding service and customer support.

He said: “In medical installations the performance of Bender systems can be the difference between life or death and our teams are acutely aware of the responsibility they carry in supplying and maintaining Bender equipment and systems.

Performance can be equally critical in sensitive manufacturing operations, power generation and management and processing sites.

“That means there is a huge market for Bender products because of the vast range of electrical systems that cannot be allowed to fail or shut down – even for a few seconds.”